Climb Lally’s mountain for Croi on June 15th

The challenge is open to all abilities and there is no limit to the amount of times you want to do the climb once it’s inside the 6hrs, the evening promises to be a carnival affair with cyclist climbing it once then taking a break before having another go. We expect cyclist to bring their families to cheer them on as the mountain turns into a mini Alp D’Huez.

Over the years cyclist from all over Mayo have used the Tourmakeady's Drimcoggy mountain (Known locally as Lally's mountain) to test their fitness and climbing ability. There are many rumours circulating that this person and that person climbed it 6 or more times but there never has been any official attempt.
Local man Damien Mac Greal who’s nick name is Delgado but nothing to the famous Spanish climber who won the Tour De France in 1988 and who was narrowly beaten by Ireland’s Stephen Roche in 1987 wants to set the record straight. He is looking for every cyclist to have at least one go at climbing the mountain with the Male and female who climbs the hill the most amount of times inside 6hrs given the title as Lally’s mountain climbing champions.

The official fastest time for climbing the 5k mountain by bike is held by Paul Griffin Tralee in a time of 10minutes and 30 seconds, when he won the Irish hill climb Championships beating Cong’s David O Loughlin by a mere 3seconds.
The road crests the top of the climb at 300m above sea level but actual climbing meters is 230meters, to do it 10 to 12 times would be the same amount of meters that the Tour De France riders cover on one of the hardest stages.

The challenge will start at 3pm from O Toole’s bar Tourmakeady on Saturday 15th of June, all the cyclist start as one big group, each cyclist then has to cycle the 5kms uphill where there number and time will be recorded and they descend again to O Toole’s bar and back up again, some will rest and others will aim to climb it as many times as possible by the finish at 9pm.
The whole route will be marshalled and each cyclist can only descend at a restricted pace so that there are no crashes with cyclist coming up.

Damien had this to say on the challenge “ It’s a hard climb but getting to the top and looking down on Lough Mask and the surrounding area will make the climb worthwhile as its stunning”
All monies raised on this climbing challenge will go to Croi Ireland who do massive work in the fight against heart disease and Stroke

Who are Croi ? Croí is a registered Irish heart & stroke charity committed to reducing the impact of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) on families in the West of Ireland. The charity is totally funded from voluntary contributions, philanthropy, fundraising events & public support.

For more info contact
Damien Mc Greal 0877700139
email :djmcgreal1977@yahoo.co.uk